“Every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of subjugation before it is
too late. We can give but a faint idea when we say it means the loss of all we
now hold most sacred ... personal property, lands, homesteads, liberty, justice,
safety, pride, manhood. It means that the history of this heroic struggle will
be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern school
teachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the War, will
be impressed by all influences of history and education to regard our gallant
dead as traitors, our maimed veterans as fit objects for the derision, it means
the crushing of Southern manhood ... to establish sectional superiority and a
more centralized form of government, and to deprive us of our rights and
liberties.”

__________________________________________

The War for Southern Independence

The War for Southern Independence was not fought over the issue of slavery, as
taught from public school books written by biased northern historians, who put
their “spin” on history.

It was also not a "Civil War."
A civil war is a war between two factions trying to take control over a central
government. The War of 1861-1865 was between two nations. When the Constitution was
ratified, the states retained the right to secede. When the rights of the
Southern States were abrogated, they exercised that privilege. After withdrawing
from the Union, they formed the Confederate States of America, a separate government.
The Confederate States simply declared their independence from the Union exactly
as the American Colonies had declared their independence from England. There has
never been a Civil War in our country. The war was fought for Constitutional
rights. The Confederate states had absolutely no intention of taking over the
government in Washington, D.C., any more so than George Washington had of taking
over England.

The state of Massachusetts had threatened to secede from the Union a few years
previously, because of the addition of the states from the Louisiana Territory.

The main issue in the war was not slavery. The North did not first fight to free
the slaves. "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with slavery
in the states where it exists," said Lincoln early in the conflict. The Union
Congress overwhelmingly endorsed this position in July 1861. The war had
already begun some three months before, on April 14, 1861. Within a year of the
July proclamation however, both Lincoln and Congress decided to make
emancipation of slaves in the Confederate States, a Union war policy.

Union General U. S. Grant said
during the war, "Should I become convinced that the object of the government is
to execute the wishes of the abolitionists, I pledge you my honor as a man and a
soldier, I would resign my commission and carry my sword to the other side."
General Grant kept his slaves until after the war was over.

The Emancipation
Proclamation actually freed no one at the time it was made. It applied only to
the Confederate States. The reason it was issued was because Lincoln thought it would start a rebellion against the Confederacy by
black people. Some blacks joined in, but many others remained loyal to the
Confederacy and their homeland. The Emancipation Proclamation did not include
the northern states, or the border-states, so they were allowed to keep their
slaves until the war was over. Since slavery had become a Union war policy, the
Union finally had to free them in the northern states.

Contrary to what is taught in our public schools today, many former slaves chose
to remain and work for their former “owners” and they got along fine together.
There were thousands of brave black soldiers who volunteered into the
Confederate Army and fought proudly for their homeland in the Confederate Army.

Some ignorant “historians" have said; Lincoln was the best
friend the South ever had. That is ridiculous. That is like saying that Hitler
was the best friend the Jews ever had. It is true that he may not have been so
cruel in his treatment of southerners after the war and during the (So called)
“Reconstruction Period” (cruel military occupation) had he lived, but that is
because he had already accomplished what he set out to do and that is nullify
state's rights and concentrate power in a central government in Washington, D.C.
After he was assonated, more vengeful Yankees took over the government.

Before that war, the states were sovereign. Afterward,
federal law has always trumped state laws on everything. Who has power over all
the states? It is crooked politicians and those liberals in the Supreme Court in
Washington, D.C. What happened to the 10th Amendment? Lincoln
effectively nullified that, although it is still on the books. Who makes the
rules on issues like gay marriage and late term abortions and everything else
that affect us? We certainly don't. Government by consent of the governed no
longer exists in America.

The war was fought over the "root of all evils," money or
wealth. The main bone of contention was the Morrill Tariffs. A tax on imported
goods that rose to 47 percent. At the time, Britain manufactured better and
cheaper goods than in the industrialized northern states and since the southern
economy was agrarian based, the people of the south preferred goods imported
from England. Lincoln and his ilk imposed the tax and refused to stop it. This
was done to protect northern industries, i.e. wealth in the north.
Representatives from the southern states went to Washington, D.C. to try and
have this tax repealed, to which Lincoln refused. As you can see, if the
Confederacy had been allowed to stand, it would have ruined the northern economy
because the vast majority of wealth lay in the southland. At that time, the
agriculturally based economy in the south was greater than the industrialized
north.

If the
Confederate Battle Flag is a symbol of slavery, the United States flag is even
more so. Slavery thrived under the United States flag from 1776 to 1865, (some
89 years,) while under the Confederate flag a mere four years, but Lincoln used
the slavery issue, along with abolitionists support to have an excuse to invade
the South. Yes, Lincoln
invaded the Confederates States of America. Lincoln knew he must make the
Confederacy fire the first shots of the war. He refused to remove federal troops
from Fort
Sumter, which was of course in the Confederate States. When he sent more troops
and armor, supposedly just "supplies" to Ft. Sumter, he knew when the
Confederates learned what they were doing, they would indeed fire the first
shot.

Lincoln is no doubt, the most evil president our country
has ever had. He was responsible for the deaths of more Americans than Hitler
was. Not only that, but he was very cruel to civilians in the south. With his
approval, his troops murdered civilians, burned their homes, farms and destroyed
all of their food that the Yankee army couldn't use and even along with
abolitionists support along with abolitionists support destroyed their farm
equipment so they would starve. They raped, pillaged everyone in general
sherman's path, even the negroes, whom he supposedly was trying to "free."

School books have taught not only outright lies, but half
truths every since the war and have "educated" (brainwash) the American people
to give the north moral high ground. Even Southerners have been taught and
sincerely believe that our ancestors were the evil people and that "Lincoln held
the Union together. (He did hold the Union together, but denied freedom to the
Southern states.) It must be remembered that if the King of England had been
able to thwart the Colonies effort to free themselves from England, the king
could have claimed (and correctly) that he held England together.

Whatever else is said about Lincoln, he was a brilliant
political strategist. When he was practicing law, he once defended a fellow who
had been accused of committing a crime one night. On Lincoln’s cross
examination, one of the witnesses who had claimed that he saw the man commit the
offense was asked by Lincoln how he could have observed the crime at night. The
man replied that it there was bright moonlight that night. Lincoln pulled out a
Farmer’s Almanac and read from it that on the date of offense, there was no
moonlight. The almanac he used was an old one from a different year, so he
didn’t mind stooping to dirty tricks to win a point. He also maneuvered things
around to make it appear that the Union states had the moral high ground (the
poor slaves) and the South to be the villains. and used the slavery issue, along
with abolitionists support to have an excuse to invade the South. Yes, Lincoln
invaded the Confederates States of America. Lincoln knew he must make the
Confederacy fire the first shots of the war. He refused to remove federal troops
from Fort Sumter, which was of course in the Confederate States. When he sent
more troops and armor, supposedly just "supplies" to Ft. Sumter, he knew when
the Confederates learned what they were actually sending reinforcements, they
would indeed fire the first shot.

Back In 1832, South Carolina called a convention to nullify tariff acts of
Abominations. A compromise lowering the tariff was reached, averting secession
and possibly war. The North favored protective tariffs for the manufacturing
industry. The South, which exported agricultural products to and imported
manufactured goods from
Europe, favored free trade and were hurt by the tariffs. Plus, a
northern-dominated Congress enacted laws similar to Britain’s Navigation Acts to
protect northern shipping interests.

The Confederacy

Today, (In the year of 2000,) the "National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People" has attacked our Confederate Battle Flag that is being flown in
many state capitols in the Southern States, and claim that it is a symbol of
black slavery, and they want it removed. Of course, the cause of their ignorance
on the subject has been caused from the false teachings by northern
"historians." To say that slavery
caused the (so-called) “Civil War,” would be like saying that World War II was
fought to free Jewish people from the Nazi death camps in Germany. That war did rescue Jews from the death camps, but that was
only consequential. That brings up another interesting point; if you wanted
information about persecutions the Jews suffered in the Nazi Death Camps during
World War II, would you ask a Jew who survived this Holocaust, or a Nazi
spokesman? After all, the war occurred here in our homeland and our ancestors
were the ones who suffered the unbelievable cruelty by northern troops and the
aftermath of that war, the military occupation and Carpetbag government.
Naturally, the northern historians would put a pro-northern spin to history and
make it appear that they were the “good guys.”

Actually, there were numerous causes of the war. One of these reasons is
suggested in an 1831 speech by South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun where he
said "Stripped of all its covering, the question is whether ours is a federal or
consolidated government; a constitutional one or absolute one; a government
resting solidly on the basis of the sovereignty of the states, or on the
unrestrained will of a majority; a form of government, as in all other unlimited
ones, in which injustice, violence and force must ultimately prevail,"

Much of the Southern discontent was high tariffs Congress enacted to protect
northern manufacturing interests. Referring to those tariffs, South Carolina’s
U. S. Senator Calhoun said, "The North has adopted a system of revenue and
disbursements in which an undue portion of the burden of taxation has been
imposed on the South, and an undue proportion of its proceeds appropriated to
the North. Among other Southern grievances were northern actions similar to King
George III’s Navigation Acts, which drove our Founders to the 1776 War of
Independence. You don’t have to take the slant of 20th century
college professors on the causes of the War For Southern Independence, Just read
the words of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of
America, in "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government," or the words of
his vice president, Alexander Hamilton Stephens, in his two-volume account of
the constitutional causes of the war.

The
vast majority of white Southerners were very poor and had to work just as hard
as the slaves to survive and out of necessity so did their children. Many of
them were sharecroppers. Only six percent of
Southerners owned slaves and among this six- percent were 13,000 free Blacks who
owned slaves themselves. Would 94 percent of Southerners have fought so long and hard
as they did for the six percent who owned slaves? Not a chance! There were also
many honorable Southern Black people who proudly fought for the Confederacy.
There were regiments made up almost entirely of Black soldiers. This is still
another fact that is not taught in our schools.

It
was the northern states that first began importing slaves from Africa. Later, as
the northern states became more industrialized, their need for slaves diminished
and since the Southern economy was based more on agriculture, there was still
need for laborers, but only the more wealthy land owners could afford them. When
the need of slaves in northern states diminished, all of a sudden, most of the
people there developed their “Holier than thou” attitude and wanted to end
slavery.

Because Lincoln was assonated, he became a martyr and is almost worshiped by
modern society, but he was just an ordinary crooked politician who was only
concerned with winning the presidential election, and would say whatever he
thought would win him the most votes. Since he thought that abolitionist were in
the majority, he campaigned as an abolitionist and won the election.

Lincoln would have never went to war to prevent slavery, but he wouldn’t allow
the Confederacy to exist as a separate country because of the South’s rich
natural resources, and the taxes collected from them. That would have severely
damaged Union business interests.

I
would like to recommend an excellent book, titled THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT, authors
James Ronald Kennedy and Walter Donald Kennedy. This is absolutely the best and
most enlightening book that I have ever read about American history. It goes to
the very heart of the issues regarding causes of the War for Southern
Independence. It explains in detail how history has been distorted in our
history books by northern historians and how Lincoln and other Federalist have
abrogated the 10th Amendment to our Constitution and seized power
from individual states and formed an all powerful centralized government in
Washington, D.C. The 10th Amendment says basically that
powers not specifically delegated to the Federal Government shall remain with
the individual states. It should be evident to everyone that this is no longer
the case.

When a government is afraid of the people, there is freedom. When the people are
afraid of their government, there is tyranny. It has already come to that point.
Activist federal judges have made rulings which are directly contrary to the
meaning of our Constitution and the wishes of the majority of people. In the
last few decades, they have been constantly chewing away our rights in every
respect, including the First, Second and Tenth Amendments. If only our
government would adhere to the original meaning of our beloved Constitution, we
would be truly free.

The
Union troops and carpetbaggers devastated Southern people and caused untold and
unnecessary suffering and death. Although, the war was not fought over slavery,
it did bring an end to it earlier than otherwise would have happened. After
Lincoln’s “Emancipation Proclamation,” he had no other choice than to free the
slaves in the northern states.

Many Southerners owned slaves, so our section deserves its share of the blame.
But, how did the slaves get here? British and Dutch vessels engaged in the slave
trade, but, there were also American ships in the ugly business and though the
historians have carefully steered clear of the fact, practically every one of
them was owned and operated by Northerners.

People in Massachusetts captured their Pequot Indian neighbors and sold them
into slavery in the West Indies; they also carried on a large trade in Negroes
imported from overseas. In 1787, Rhode Island held first place in the traffic.
Later, New York City became the leader in slave trade. Philadelphia soon found the
slave business attractive. The slave traders could buy a slave in Africa for a
few gallons of rum and sell him at a fantastic profit and they made fabulous
fortunes. What did the Northern traders do with their slaves? Many were sold and
used in the north, while others were sold to Southern Planters.

History books have
misled today’s Americans to believe the war was fought to free slaves.Abe Lincoln’s family owned slaves, and kept them for over a yearafter he started the War Between the States. They finally freed their own
slaves in August of 1862, after deciding to make the issue of slavery a union
war policy. In President Lincoln’s first inaugural address, he said "I have no
purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in
the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so." During
the war, in an 1862 letter to the New York Daily Tribune editor Horace Greeley, Lincoln said, "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the
Union, and it is not either to save or destroy slavery." Lincoln’s in-laws also owned slaves. It is known that Union generals
Grant, Sherman and other northern generals owned and kept their slaves in the
Union Army until after the war was over, until it finally became unlawful in the
northern states. If Lincoln was concerned about slavery, why didn't he prohibit it in the
Union States before turning to the South?

Lincoln stated over and over again for his
entire adult life that he did not believe in social or political equality of the
races, he opposed inter-racial marriage, supported the Illinois constitution’s
prohibition of immigration of blacks into the state, once defended in court a
slave-owner seeking to retrieve his runaway slaves, but never defended a
runaway, and that he was a life-long advocate of colonization – of sending every
last black person in the U.S. back to Africa, or anywhere, but not allow them to
live in the United States.

The Union had no legitimate reason
to wage a war against the Confederacy, other than to deprive individual states
of their Constitutional right to succeed from the union, and run their own
business. Northern “historians” have taught outright lies about the war, they
have used thousands “half truths” to put their spin on the war, that is, they
never tell the “Rest of the story.”

The North fought
for money and political power, while the Confederacy was fighting for
independence.

Lincoln the
Lawyer

It is true that Lincoln became
famous for his debates with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, regarding his stand
against slavery, but Lincoln was a lawyer by trade and every lawyer must be good
debaters, because that is the nature of their business. Lincoln did have great
debating skills; there is no question about that. He could have easily argued
the opposite side with equal vigor. He may have actually believed that slavery
was wrong, but the fact that he kept his slaves for about a year after his war
with the Confederacy began, strongly suggests that he didn’t let his conscience
bother him about owning them. Lincoln was also a politician, with a great lust
for power. At the time of the debates, he thought it would be politically
expedient to gain favor with the abolitionist. Therefore, it is better to judge
a man by what he does and not by what he says.

Slave trade
began before the American Revolution.

It seems that the vast majority
of our history books has ignored the truth about slavery, but has created an
entirely different picture. The following was taken out of a very old history
book, which was published in several volumes. It deals in part with some of the
problems America was facing with the king of England immediately preceding the
American Revolution. The book is entitled "The American Nation - a History"
volume 8 – preliminaries of the Revolution 1763-1775 – page 250:

"The indignation of the people of Virginia was aroused by a much
more serious grievance. In 1770 the king, in the interest of British merchants,
issued an instruction commanding the Governor:

“Upon pain of the highest displeasure, to accent to no law by which the
importation of slaves should be in any respect prohibited or obstructed."

In the address against this order, the House of Burgess in 1772 declared that:

"The importation of slaves into the colonies from the coast of Africa
hath long been considered as a trade of inhumanity, and under its present
encouragement, we have much reason to fear will endanger the very existence of
your Majesty’s American dominions. We are sensible that some of your Majesty’s
subjects in Great Britain may reap emoluments from this sort of traffic; but
when we consider that it greatly retards the settlement of the colonies with
more useful inhabitants, and may in time have the most destructive influence, we
presume to hope that the interest of few will be disregarded, when placed in
competition with the security and happiness of such numbers of your Majesty’s
dutiful and loyal subjects."

Hundreds of books have been written about Lincoln the humanitarian, a soft and
gentle man. But from the very beginning of his administration he intentionally
waged a cruel and unbelievably bloody war on civilians as well as soldiers. As
early as 1861, Federal soldiers looted, pillaged, raped and plundered their way
through Virginia and other Southern States, completely burning to the ground the
towns of Jackson and Meridian, Mississippi, Randolph, Tennessee, and others.
Historian Jeffrey Rogers Hummel estimates that some 50,000 Southern civilians
were killed during the war, and this number, even if it is exaggerated by a
multiple of two, most likely includes thousands of slaves. In his march to the
Sea, General William Tecumseh Sherman boasted of having destroyed $100 million
in private property and that his “soldiers” carried home another $20 million
worth.

In his memoirs Sherman wrote that when he met with Lincoln after his
March to the Sea was completed, Lincoln was eager to hear the stories of how
thousands of Southern civilians, mostly women, children and old men, were
plundered, sometimes murdered, and rendered homeless. Lincoln, according to Sherman, laughed almost
uncontrollably at the stories. Even Sherman biographer Lee Kennett, who writes
very favorably of the general, concluded that had the Confederates won the war,
they would have been “justified in stringing up President Lincoln and the entire
Union high command for violation of the laws of war, specifically for waging war
against noncombatants.

It is very clear that the Southern People and the Confederacy were
not exclusively to blame for slavery. English and Yankee slave traders, along
with black slave sellers should share equal blame for slavery.

Black people in Africa were captured by other Blacks and sold
into slavery because they were prisoners. The ones bought for slavery were
actually saved from an even worse fate, which would surely have been death. I’m
quite sure that those poor people in those days would not have kept, fed and
coddled prisoners like our country does today. Their market value to the black
chieftains no doubt saved their lives.

Tales of Reconstruction

Taken from Destruction & Reconstruction, published in
1879

“The world can not properly estimate the fortitude of
the Southern people unless it understands and takes account of the difficulties
under which they labored. Yet, great as were their sufferings during the war,
they were as nothing compared to those inflicted upon them after it’s close.

Extinction of slavery was expected by all and
regretted by none, although loss of slaves destroyed the value of land. Existing
since the earliest colonization of the states, the institution was interwoven
with the thoughts, habits, and daily lives of both races, and both suffered by
the sudden disruption of the accustomed tie. Bank stocks, bonds, all personal
property, all accumulated wealth, had disappeared. Thousands of houses, farm
buildings, work animals, flocks and herds, had been wantonly burned, killed, or
carried off. The land was filled with widows and orphans crying for aid, which
the universal destruction prevented them from receiving. Humanitarians shuddered
with horror and wept with grief for the imaginary woes of Africans; but their
hearts were as adamant to people of their own race and blood. These had
committed the unpardonable sin, had wickedly rebelled against the Lord’s
anointed, the majority. Blockaded during the war, and without journals to guide
opinion and correct error, we were unceasingly slandered by our enemies, who
held possession of every avenue to the world’s ear.

Famine and pestilence have ever followed war, as if
our Mother Earth resented the defilement of her fair bosom by blood, and
generated fatal diseases to punish humanity for its crimes. But there fell upon
the South a calamity surpassing any recorded in the annals or traditions of man.
An article in the "North American Review," from the pen of Judge Black, well
describes this new curse, the carpetbaggers, as worse than Attila, scourge of
God. He could only destroy existing fruits, while, by the modern invention of
public credit, these caterans stole the labor of unborn generations. Divines,
moralists, orators, and poets throughout the North commended their thefts and
bade them God’s speed in spoiling the Egyptians; and the rein of these harpies
is not yet over. Driven from the outworks, they hold the citadel…. Honest men
regarded them as monsters, generated in the foul ooze of a past era, that had
escaped destruction to live in a more wholesome age…. Twelve years of triumph
have not served to abate the hate of the victors in the Great War. The last
presidential canvass was but a crusade of vengeance against the South.”

The famous outlaws Jesse and Frank James were guerilla fighters with
Quantrell’s Raiders and were not associated with the Confederate Army.

The story belowwas taken from a book written by one of the former James’ gang members Cole
Younger in his later years. After serving 25 years in a federal prison, he
joined Buffalo Bill
Cody’s Wild West Show touring the country and staging "robberies" before large
audiences.

These men were hardened war
veterans. After the war ended, Jesse and Frank returned to their family farm and
engaged in honest hard work trying to live off of the land peaceably for four
years, until one day while they were working in the fields, a railroad
representative for the Rock Central Railroad (Which was based in Chicago,
Illinois) visited their farm in an effort to gain ownership of the James’ family
farm, on which to build a railroad through. Mr. James was offered only one
dollar an acre for it, which he refused. The railroad representative then shot
and killed Mr. James, then threw a fire bomb into their house killing their
young son and completely destroying their home, while the Yankee soldiers turned
their backs.

When Jesse and Frank saw their house
burning, they ran to investigate. Upon learning what had happened with the
railroad man, they swore revenge. They felt they had no choice but to seek their
own justice. They dug up their old revolvers that had been wrapped and buried in
a Confederate Battle Flag inside their barn, hidden from the Yankee troops.
Jesse and Frank rode into town, found the guilty railroad man and killed him.
From that day on, they were outlaws and went into hiding.

After that incident, they continued
to rob the Rock Central Railroad holdings, which included banks, stagecoaches
and railroads. They had the full sympathy of their neighbors who helped to keep
them hidden from their tormentors, the Yankee Carpetbaggers.

Although, peaceful for fours years
after the war, they joined the Younger Brothers to form a gang of rebels that
waged a bloody war against their corrupt enemies. One day, they rode into town
and made a rather large cash withdrawal, although they didn’t have an account
with them. While the robbery was in progress, Jesse confronted the bank’s vice
president, who happened to be one of his former enemies. This man had been a
captain in the Union army, and was the man who led an attack during which
Jesse’s Confederate Captain Bill Anderson was killed. This man had Anderson’s
head cut off and placed on public display to intimidate the local citizens. The
James’ boys had a run in with this man only a few days earlier. He was a rather
brash fool who made the mistake of threatening Jesse James. In less than two
seconds, there was a surprised new face in Hell. The James gang escaped to
commit many more robberies.

The Rock Central Railroad hired
Allen Pinkerton, head of the Pinkerton Detective Agency to capture the James
Gang. Allan Pinkerton hired one of his nephews to help.

In the evening of January 11, 1874,
Pinkerton’s nephew confronted Jesse James on a ferry-boat and tried to kill him.
Instead, Jesse James killed him. Allan Pinkerton swore that he would not rest
until the James Brothers were hung by a rope. The ferryman would not admit to
witnessing the killing and did not testify against Jesse James.

Most history books only tell one
side of the story and depict the James gang as being blood-thirsty in the very
beginning, but conveniently leave out the fact that their anger was caused by
the Northern railroads who were protected by the carpetbag government. So, in
the beginning at least, the James gang set out to get revenge for the deaths of
their daddy and younger brother, plus a little something for their burned out
farm house.

In an attempt to capture the James’
gang, the Yankee troops attacked the James farm and one of the soldiers blew off
an arm of the elder Mrs. James. The gang was not there at the time of the
attack. In another incident, a group of Yankee soldiers ran across a couple of
gang members. In a short skirmish, the two gang members escaped, but the Yankees
succeeded in killing an innocent 15 year old boy.

Southern White people were not
allowed to vote, or own land without Carpetbag government’s approval. Yankee
troops even showed up at their funerals to harass them. These people were not
only robbed of their possessions, but also robbed of their pride and dignity.

I am not condoning everything the
James gang did, but just wanted to tell the true side of history that has been
ignored by most northern historians. I can empathize with the James gang.

Members of the Missouri legislature
tried to pass an amnesty bill for the James Brothers, so they would turn
themselves in to authorities. Allan Pinkerton then shot and killed the old
ferryman who was running the ferry service across a river at the time of his
nephew’s death, in revenge for the old fellow’s refusal to admit seeing Jesse
James’ killing his nephew. Pinkerton then blamed the killing of the ferryman on
the James Brothers to stall the amnesty bill.

Jesse James was shot in the back and
killed in his own home by one of his former gang members by the name of Bob
Ford, for reward money. Bob Ford in turn, was shot and killed in a bar in
Colorado by a cowboy who shouted as he shot, "This is for Jesse James."

Frank James was tried and acquitted.
Allan Pinkerton died of a heart attack before Frank James’ trial. Frank was not
convicted, and never served one day in prison.

The Right Cause, Not The
Lost Cause

We who still revere the "Old South"
consider the cause of the War for Southern Independence to be the right cause –
not the lost cause. Civil War is a misnomer.

Another misconception that has been taught and
believed by about 95 percent of people is that the leaders of the Confederacy
sought to overthrow the government in Washington, D. C. That is blatantly false.
In an obituary of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, published by the New York
Times, states that
“Lee's greatest victory was the Battle of Chancellorsville in May of 1863. Lee
was faced with a larger army led by fighting Joe Hooker. Lee and his most
trusted lieutenant, Gen. Stonewall Jackson, divided their forces and through a
forced march around General Hooker fell on his exposed flank, rolling it up, and
defeating the union forces yet again.

This victory led Lee and Davis to
consider a second invasion of the North. Lee's army would hopefully bring the
Federal forces to bay and destroy them. They would then march on Washington to
hand Lincoln a letter asking for recognition of the CSA. So with desperate
hopes, and while still mourning the loss of Stonewall Jackson, Lee and Davis
crossed the river and invaded Pennsylvania.

Our Confederate troops were always
greatly outnumbered by an immeasurably better equipped army, but man for man
were never outfought. They won the majority of the battles, but lost the war. I
swell with pride when I think of the raw courage and fighting spirit shown by
our Southern ancestors in the face of such overwhelming odds. The great writer
Rudyard Kipling once said "There in the Southland lives the greatest breed of
fighting man the world has ever known."

I am very proud of the fact that my
grandfather George W. Higginbotham fought with the 3rd Alabama
Cavalry, in the defense of Atlanta.

The demands of the war strained the
Confederate economy to the breaking point, while the North was plunged into a
period of booming prosperity. Government purchases for military needs stimulated
industry and farming. Expanding industries included iron and steel, woolen
clothing shoes munitions, railroads and coal. Farmers vastly increased wheat and
wool production.

During the entire time of the war,
and the so-called "Reconstruction Period" (which was nothing more than a brutal
military occupation of Southern States by the Union forces.) was a time of
unbelievable suffering and hardships for Southerners, a nightmare too horrible
for us to imagine. During the war, most able-bodied men had to serve in the
army, leaving only old men, women and children to work the fields. Yankee
general William Tecumseh Sherman and his troops during his so-called "March to
the Sea" killed, terrorized and robbed poor helpless citizens of their food, to
supply his army. Then they deliberately destroyed the rest of their food as well
as their farm equipment and barns, to leave them without any means of growing
food. Even many northerners regarded their general Sherman as a mad man. The
whole town of Atlanta, Georgia was burned.

LIMESTONE COUNTY AFTER APPOMATTOX

1865
- 1870

Published Fall,
1985 by historian and genealogist Faye Acton Axford of Athens, Limestone Co. AL.
A copy can be secured from the McClung Collection, Knoxville, Tennessee or the Limestone
County Alabama Archives.

"When you return to
your homes, you will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the
consciousness of duty faithfully performed", said Robert E. Lee at Appomattox.
And afterwards, hundreds of weary, dirty, often vermin-ridden men marched
homeward, heads bowed in sorrow over their dead comrades lost in a cause for
which they had given everything. That the bowed heads did not signify defeat was
often reiterated by those who had been there-at Shiloh, Bull Run, Salem Church,
Gettysburg and many other never- to- be forgotten places of which they had never
heard before being caught up in war.

The confederates
reached Limestone County in that summer and fall of 1865, unprepared for the
scenes which met them-the courthouse and many buildings around the square lying
in gutted ruins, homes pilfered of all vestiges of former beauty and /or
comfort, hunger rampart, and fields stripped bare by the occupying forces. Corn,
when it could be found, was almost their only means of sustenance.

Unfortunately, they
couldn't eat cotton, for five million bales of that commodity were stored in the
South, which would have been many millions in Liverpool, but much of it was seized, and a heavy tax was levied on the
remainder. Before a law was passed to exempt the tax in 1868, Alabamians paid
almost $10.3 millions in tax. The New York Chamber of Commerce had its influence
in this exemption law, perhaps, for they reported that they deplored this tax,
on the grounds that "taxation without representation is tyranny," and the cotton
tax was a violation of the U. S. Constitution.

Other problems
arose as the veterans settled in to recoup their losses. Lands that had been
cleared in the early part of the century by pioneer antecedents and mastered
with pride and prosperity before 1861, began to slip away through the chancery
courts and bankrupt proceedings because of high taxes imposed upon them.
Freedmen, who had been good workers under the slave system, now bided their
time, waiting for the "forty acres and a mule" promised them by the Freedman's
Bureau from their former masters' lands. The former President of the Confederacy
was imprisoned at Fortress Monroe; the government to which they had pledged
allegiance was in shambles, and loyal Confederates considered it treason to
identify with the Federal Government. State and local governments had little or
no jurisdiction over the citizens. Perhaps the most serious problem lay in the
lawless bands of black and white soldiers and agitators who seeking power and
revenge for real or imagined insults. It was not long before it was apparent
that some kind of protection against these outrages was imperative.

In her book, the
Authentic History of the Ku Klux Klan: 1865-1877, printed in New York in 1924,
Susan Lawrence Davis gives an account of these troubled times. We herewith wish
to give a condensed version of her findings, made through her personal memories,
interviews, and documents dealing with the period of activity of this group
which began in Pulaski, Tennessee as a secret social
organization on Christmas Eve, 1865. Their first ride through town, dressed in
their strange garb, produced fear among the superstitious, and this fear became
the weapon used by the Ku Klux Klan after it became more than merely a social
lark, but dedicated itself to the protection of the innocent.

In February, 1866,
Captain John C. Lester of Pulaski, visited Lawrence Ripley Davis, father of
Susan Davis, in Athens. There was a rumor that white children would be forced by
bayonet to attend a school in the Baptist church in Athens which had been opened
for Negroes by J. W. Alvord of the Freedmen's Bureau. Mrs. Jane Hamilton Childs,
who had saved the Female Institute from the torch by her Northern sentiments,
persuaded the commanding officer not to carry out this threat. She had lived
among the Southern people long enough to know that they were far from being
ready for such a drastic departure from tradition.

Following this
favorable talk between Lester and Davis, Editor Frank McCord of the Pulaski
Citizen and Grand Cyclops of the Pulaski organization, met with a group of
leading citizens at "The Cove," three miles from Athens. Charter members
attending were: Dr. Nicholas Davis Richardson (elected Grand Cyclops of the
Athens den), R. A. McClellan, Robert Donnell, Fortunatus Wood, Paul L. Jones,
John B. Floyd, T. J. Cox, R. B. Mason, William Richardson, James B. Richardson,
W. R. Pryor, William Cass Nichols, Thomas Carter, Henry J. Pepin, and Edwin R.
Richardson.

Edwin Tanner, son
of Peterson Tanner and ex-Confederate soldier living three miles from Athens,
was called out of his house, dragged into the road and shot by Negro soldiers in
August 1866. It so happened that Tanner's wife had just given birth to a son and
Dr. N. D. Richardson, the attending physician, was there. The doctor sent a
faithful ex-salve of his to Athens to notify the Ku Klux Klan members to come
and capture the murderers. Plantation bells, signal of danger among the Klan,
started ringing over the county. Sue Davis recalled that she was awakened by the
bell at their home in the east end of the county, and saw her father, dressed in
Klan regalia, kissing her mother goodbye. The Klan members pursued the murderers
to the Tennessee River, where members of the guilty party tried to cross the
railroad bridge by foot, met an oncoming train and jumped into the river. Some
escaped and some were drowned. Edwin Tanner's will was probated by Samuel
Tanner, Jr., on 29 August 1866.

Many other outrages
were perpetrated by members of the Union League and the Loyal League, which was
a branch of the parent organization. The Union League was founded in Ohio in
1862 to bolster the morale of the Union Army, which suffered several defeats
during that time. The League sent agents into the South to distribute leaflets
to Negroes with orders to molest women and children to the point that their
Confederate soldiers would leave the army to protect them. Sue Davis recorded
that a faithful slave, Alex, brought such a paper to her mother to read it to
him. After he heard it, Alex declared that he would die before harming her or
the children. Alex asked for a shotgun belonging to Davis, and sat at the front
of the Davis house with the gun and an axe to guard the house during Davis'
absence. Scenes like this were enacted all over the South.

After the post-war
marriage of Federal General Jesse Phillips and Sue Davis's sister,

Virginia Davis
Harris, they were often in Washington, D. C. Once they were invited to attend a
meeting of the Loyal League. At this meeting, it was decided that the name of
"Loyal League" should be changed to "Ku Klux Klan," and they would send more men
South to spread terror. Mrs. Phillips decided to go to President Johnson, whom
she had known during his short residence in Limestone County as a young man, to
apprise him of the situation. Johnson later reported that it was after her visit
to him that he changed his tactics of abuse of the South, and determined that
that section should be fully restored to the Union. Virginia Phillips then
hurried South to inform her brother and the other Ku Klux Klan members of the
false Klan's plans. General Nathan Bedford Forrest, by now the Grand Wizard,
called a meeting in Athens, and stationed men to patrol the roads and arrest
those who could not give the very secret and authentic Ku Klux grip and pass
word. President of the Loyal League around Athens, according to testimony given
by Captain William Richardson, was D. H. Bingham, who is mentioned several times
in the newspaper accounts. Richardson stated that the League met in an old drug
store building on the corner of the Athens square.

Although the Ku
Klux Klan spread rapidly throughout Alabama, the headquarters for the State were
always in Athens. General James H. Clanton, brother-in-law of L. R. Davis, was
the first Grand Dragon of the Realm of Alabama. Clanton was killed in 1871 as
the result of a railroad dispute in Chattanooga. General John T. Morgan served
from that time until 1876, when the Klan was instrumental in his election to the
U. S. Senate; and General Edmund W. Pettus, a native of Limestone and later U.
S. Senator, served from that time until the actual disbanding of the Klan in
1877. Bishop Hooker Wilmer, close friend of Morgan, went to England to see Judah
P. Benjamin, ex-Confederate Cabinet member who became one of the most noted of
English barristers. Benjamin, a Jew, was so impressed with the work of the Klan
that he borrowed money to assist them in their efforts. Bishop Wilmer became the
chaplain of the Alabama Klan and Father Abram Ryan, the noted southern poet,
became the Chaplain for the Invisible Empire. Ryan attended at least one meeting
of the Klan at the Athens home of Henry J. Pepin.

In 1871, when the
health of Dr. N. D. Richardson made it impossible to continue as Grand Cyclops
of the Athens den, Major R. A. McClellan took over. McClellan, who had served in
Company C, 7th Alabama Cavalry under Colonel James c. Malone, later
married Autora Pryor, daughter of Senator Luke Pryor. He was succeeded as Grand
Cyclops by Major Robert Donnell, a veteran of company E, 50th Albama
Regiment and the 22nd Alabama Infantry. When Sue Davis and her
sisters attended Miss Sally Malone's school in Athens, either their father or
Major Donnell would accompany them. Sue later learned that Donnell was one of
the guards set up by the Klan to protect the school children.

Prior to the first
convention of the Klan, held in Nashville during May 1867, Captain william
Richardson, Captain John B. Floyd, and Bishop Hooker Wilmer joined Tennessee
delegates in visiting General Robert E. Lee in the hopes that he would join and
head the movement. Lee would not actively join, but stated that he would support
it, so long as it remained a protective organization, in an invisible way. Thus,
at the convention, which was held in Room Number 10 of the Maxwell House Hotel,
the term "Invisible Empire" was adopted. Captain Richardson asked for, and
received, Lee's approval to invite General Nathan Bedford Forrest to be the Klan
leader. L. r. Davis and William Richardson traveled to Memphis before the
convention to see Forrest. Richardson wished, in addition to asking Forrest to
be the leader, to thank the general for rescuing him from being hanged as a spy
(which he was not) in Murfreesboro during the war. J. W. Morton, once commander
of artillery in Forrest's company and now Grand Cyclops of the Nashville den,
administered the oath to Forrest as Grand Wizard of the Invisible Empire.

The Wizard had ten
assistants called "Genii." The Empire was divided into Realms, the Realms into
Divisions along the line of Congressional Districts, the Divisions into
Provinces, and Provinces into Dens. At the convention, principles were adopted,
stating that: "We recognize our relation to the United States government, the
supremacy of the Constitutional laws thereof, and the Union of the States
hereafter." They pledged to protect the weak, innocent and defenseless from the
indignities of the lawless; and relieve the injured and oppressed and the
suffering, especially the widows and children of confederate officers.

Forrest issued an
order for a 4 July 1867 parade in all the provinces. He himself paraded with the Klan at
Pulaski, then they came to Athens, not arriving at the
latter place until about midnight. It was here that Forrest reenacted the
tactics employed in the battle of Athens in September 1864, when
by a skillful movement of his forces which bolstered their number manyfold, he
tricked the defending Colonel Wallace Campbell into surrendering the Federal
fort west of town. On this July 4th night in 1867, the Klan members
came and went "like a wraith in the night," doing nothing to change the belief
that they were the spirits of dead Confederate soldiers.

The worst period
for the south came with the end of Johnson's administration. State and local
offices were filled by Radical "carpet baggers," and military districts were set
up. One instance of this action was in the replacement of John B. McClellan by
Silas Thurlow as probate judge of Limestone County in 1868. Klan members and
other citizens were incensed. At a meeting in Huntsville in November 1868,
Thurlow was killed, and the Klan was blamed for it. Substantial evidence was
given later, however, to clear the Klan of guilt. A Federal officer testified at
hearings that the Klan was not on the side of the square where Thurlow was shot,
and eye witnesses stated that he was killed by Negro soldiers stationed at the
Court House.

Riots such as this
furnished Washington with further reasons to tighten its control over the south.
Every killing or whipping or disturbance was credited to the Ku Klux Klan. South
Carolina was declared a military state after riots there, and Louisiana and
Arkansas were particularly hard pressed.

When General U. S.
Grant was elected to the Presidency in 1869, the South was hopeful that it would
then be rid of carpet bag rule, but they were disappointed. The first Anti-Ku
Klux Act was passed in 1871, and the second in 1872. Trials were held in
Huntsville in May 1872, in which much evidence was brought forth, showing that
the Klan was innocent of many charges against it. The trials made many in the
northern states realize the serious situation in which the South found itself. A
number of Federal officers spoke in favor of the assistance which the Klan had
offered to them in the pursuance of law and order.

One such case in
which the Klan proved of value was in the arrest of the desperado, Tom Clark,
who left a wake of violence in North Alabama and Tennessee. When Forrest heard
of the atrocities committed by Clark and his band of Tories, which northern
papers called the work of the Ku Klux Klan, he went at once to Florence and held a meeting at
the plantation George S. Houston near Muscle Shoals. Two of Clark's men were
captured by Klansmen and taken to military authorities at Florence, under
command of Captain DeFord, who had the men shot.

In 1868, the
Radical governor of Tennessee, William P. "Parson" Brownlow, issued an order
that Ku Klux Klansmen be shot on sight. During a speech in New York about this
time, Brownlow was quoted as saying that he would like to see every Rebel man,
woman ,and child exterminated south of the Mason and Dixon line. Such
statements, of course, kept the hatred and bitterness alive in all geographical
sections of the country.

Brownlow's order,
coupled with the fact that atrocities were being committed far beyond the
geographical range of the Klan, but attributed to them, caused Forrest to issue
his only write order to the Klan on 20 October 1869. He demanded that all true
members of the Klan destroy their masks and costumes. Any one refusing to do so
would be "deemed an enemy of the Order, and shall be treated accordingly." It
was stated that the Klan had never been the enemy of Negroes as long as they
were peaceful, and indeed that they had come to their assistance in many
instances. The Klan, it was stated, stood for order and peace, it was not a
military or political organization, but a protective one. This order led to the
popular belief, as it evidently was intended, that the Ku Klux Klan had
officially disbanded, but this was, in fact, not a reality until the death of
Forrest in 1877.

By that time, the
difficult situation had been greatly alleviated. The "new day" that had long
been dreamed of, was dawning. It was during the meeting at Houston's plantation
, as described above, that Houston expressed his fervent desire that Alabama be
rescued from radical rule. His old friend, Lawrence Ripley Davis, said that
Houston was the only man who could defeat the Republican candidate, and that he
would "stump" the state for him. Houston would win his campaign in 1874, and
become the first Democratic governor to bring home rule back to the state. Davis
went with him to Montgomery as his private secretary, and helped to bring about
the reforms which would eventually put the State on a firm footing.

It cannot be denied
that Susan Davis was highly prejudiced in her Authentic History, but it does
present a clearer picture of events in those dark days. We get a glimpse of
these conditions in the novel Gone With the wind, by Margaret Mitchell. It is
interesting to note that Susan Davis sued Margaret Mitchell, stating that the
latter had plagiarized whole pages from her Authentic History of the Ku Klux
Klan in her novel. The suit was eventually dropped.

Invaluable
information can be derived from the newspapers of the day, and we have
endeavored to disseminate a better understanding of the times, sans magnolias,
in this work. The whole story, however, cannot be gleaned from the yellowed
newspaper journals, for much of the history could not be printed one hundred and
twenty-odd years ago.

Following this
introduction, Faye Acton Axford and Eulalia Yancey Wellden listed a collection
of local excerpts from the Newspapers of the Day which tell the story of the
citizens struggle. For example: Athens Weekly Post 1867;

Real Estate Sales -
B. Sanders, trustee for J.W.S. Donnell, advertised for sale on 4 November 1867,
the "magnificent residence in the town of Athens, situated near enough to the
public square for the owner to enjoy all the facilities of town, and remote
enough to have all the quietude of a country life, etc. I will also proceed to
sell for cash, in the county of Lawrence, State of Alabama,
on Tuesday 12 November 1867, the plantation known as the Seclusion Place,
containing 2000 acres more or less.

Churches - The
world-renowned Southern pianist, L. P. Wheat, gave a concert at the Cumberland
Presbyterian Church…Rev. G. W. Mitchell who through the long night of war kept
its fires burning and his flock together…for two years he was the only clergyman
in the place. His church was used by the Federal military, for occasional
barracks and hospital. When the carpets, books and furniture were mostly taken,
then for quartermaster and commissary stores, until the floors and gallery were
broken down, after which almost every piece of timber was destroyed - pulpit,
seats, floors, windows, blinds, sills -all consumed, leaving the bare walls.

The Memphis
Avalance paid tribute to the memory of Capt. Thomas Hubbard Hobbs, who died in
July 1862 as a result of wounds received in the battle of Gaines Mill. "No
better man, or braver soldier, fought with the Army of Northern Virginia - He
gave his life for the country he loved so well, and for the development and
improvement of which, he had done so much. In every sense of the word, he was a
true man-as near faultless as it is possible for a man to become in a world so
full of wickedness and deception as ours. There was never but one Tom Hobbs in
this county"

George Donnell, a
faithful and honest old servant died in October.

"For four years the souls of many of us had never
wafted higher than the range of a cannon ball; our thought never reached deeper
than a soldier's shallow grave; our calculations were of the comparative
strength of armies, and the power of guns…but there was a little flock among the
faithless-Dr. Petway, was sent to fill this station and under him and Smith a
revival of religion had returned…